1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system and method for collecting, processing, controlling and updating data from a variety of sources. More particularly, the invention relates to simplifying the management and control of such data.
2. Background of the Invention
In the past when multiple business entities needed to communicate with a single central business entity, for example when multiple overseas affiliates of a large multinational corporation needed to communicate with a home office, a computer system such as the system shown in FIG. 1 was generally employed. A first remote office 102 would generally include at least one data entry operator 104 and at least one computer operator 106. The data entry operator 104 would generally enter information into a computer system at the remote office 102. The computer operator 106 at the first remote office would maintain, update, and manage the computer system at the first remote office 102.
A similar approach would be followed in a second remote office 108. Like the first remote office 102, the second remote office 108 would include a data entry operator 110 and a computer operator 112. The tasks of the second 110 data entry operator and the second computer operator 112 would be similar to those of the first data entry operator 104 and the first computer operator 106. The second remote office 108 would also communicate with the main office 126. There could be a number N of remote offices 114 which would each have a data entry operator 116 and a computer operator 118. All of the remote offices 102, 108 and 114 would communicate with the main office 140.
Often the remote offices would run different computer platforms, different software, and would produce different outputs. In other words, each of the remote offices 102, 108, and 114 would produce data in local formats and there would not be uniformity in the data outputs from the remote offices. All of the outputs from the remote offices 102, 108, and 114 would eventually be sent to the main office 140.
Generally, the computer system 120 in the main office 140 would interface with the remote offices, receive data from the remote offices, and print the outputs from the remote offices via a printer 122. The term “computer system” as used throughout the specification and claims means use of a portion of computer resources of a computer, a single computer, or a computer in communication with other computers, unless expressly stated otherwise. A person 124 (or a team of persons) would read and analyze the outputs from the remote offices. Because the remote offices would produce data in different formats, the conversion team 124 would have to convert the data to a format compatible with the main office data base. In other words, the conversion team 124 would have to select and reformat the data, convert the outputs, and enter the converted data into data base 126. This could be a manual step in the process.
After the data was collected and converted and entered into the main database 126, reports 128 could be generated. Many problems and inefficiencies occur to the extent that the remote offices use different data rules and access rules than each other and than the main office 140.
Data rules, as used throughout the specification and claims, unless expressly stated otherwise, means any rule governing any data parameter or format. For example, data rules would include such things as number and organization of fields, field types, syntax, size of field, and any other data structure requirements or protocols.
Access rules, as used throughout the specification and claims, unless expressly stated otherwise, means any rule governing the transmission or reception of any data from one entity to any other entity. An entity can be a natural person, a computer system, or an office. Access rules would include rules governing, for example, login identifications, passwords, security levels or hierarchy, access codes, rights to documents and allocation of memory.
Prior art system 100 would also have difficulty in managing and controlling data and access. Because the access rules and data rules are usually maintained or stored locally within the remote offices, it could be very difficult to manage and control data and access from main office 140. In order to update an access rule or a data rule, the main office 140 has to correspond or communicate with the remote office which is affected by the change in access or data rule. For example, if a certain field were to be expanded from 5 digits to 7 digits, the main office 140 would have to correspond with each of the remote offices and inform them that this field has been expanded from 5 to 7 digits. A computer operator 106 in the first remote office 102 would have to review the correspondence, and update the remote office computer system accordingly. Likewise, computer operator 112 in the second office 108 would also have to review the correspondence and update the computer system in the second remote office 108. This would continue until the Nth computer operator 318 would review the same correspondence and update the computer system in the Nth remote office 114. Unfortunately, not all remote offices have a computer operator, so for those offices that do not have a computer operator, necessary changes in the computer system of that remote office might not be made and inconsistent data could be transmitted back to the main office 140. Moreover, if one of the computer operators were to make an error, inconsistent data could be transmitted to the main office 140. Another computer operator 130 at the main office 140 would have to update the computer system of the main office 140.
If the prior art system included remote offices located in foreign countries, additional problems could arise. The accounting practices and accounting rules in those foreign countries would generally vary from country to country, further complicating the interface between the main office and the remote offices. The different accounting procedures would also make it difficult to implement universal data rules across all remote offices. Currency fluctuations between the countries would also further complicate data exchange and integration between the remote offices and the main office.
The prior art system would generally use conventional data base computing structures such as the structures shown in FIG. 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, if an operation was required for two data elements A and B, the conventional computer system would perform the following steps. In step 200, the computer would select element A from the data base. In step 202, the computer would select element B from the data base. In step 204, the computer would recall an embedded command and manipulate A and B accordingly. In step 204, A and B could be added, subtracted, multiplied, divided, added to another number, or multiplied by another number, i.e., basically any mathematical operation or other manipulation that could be executed using data elements A and B. In step 206, the result would be stored as output C. The resulting data base would have three locations A, B and C. The embedded command in step 204 could be either embedded in the software or contained as a data base field where field A and field B are added to created field C.
The prior art computing structures that use embedded commands or functions have several drawbacks. The embedded commands are difficult to update or edit. This problem becomes magnified if there are several offices that all have an embedded command and all of the embedded commands in all of those offices need to be simultaneously updated. In these cases, a computer operator in each office would have to manually gain access to the embedded command, and then carefully update and edit the embedded command. This process is slow and is prone to human error due to the demanding nature of the modifications that must be made by a computer operator.